Sheik Aweys: Somalia At War

With a hundred or more dead, Islamic Courts Union fighters and government soldiers backed by Ethiopia are caught in escalating violence in Somalia. Islamist leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys has called for all Somalis to join the fight and despite having talked peace as recently as Saturday, is now calling it a war.

Unprecedented operations for securing the steadiness of the capital were continued by the Islamic Courts Union forces in Mogadishu. The Islamist fighters were searching small cars, buses, and trucks coming to the capital from southern provinces for weapons and explosives.

Islamists said they should be careful as heavy fighting between them and the Ethiopian backed forces was taking place around Baidoa, southern Somalia. The search operation was on until this morning.The fighting has intensified around Idaale under the government soldiers. Islamic Courts said they gained grounds from the government, and insisted they were fighting with Ethiopian troops in and around Baidoa town, 245 km south of the capital Mogadishu.

The most immediate threat for US interests is that Somalia more than anywhere is now poised to become Al-Qaeda's new home base. And the seeds for cross-border conflict with Ethiopia are more than planted, they're basically full-grown.

Unlike the leaders of the rival factions, an EU envoy is convinced negotiations will work. Yeah, sure!

"I would be pleased to die in the Jihad (a holy war) while I was killing the Christian Ethiopian troops that forcefully occupied our country," he said. "We will not halt the war until our forces reach the border between Somalia and Ethiopia," he added.

The BBC has a good piece out. Especially if you're an Islamist:

Under the control of the Islamic courts, peace has been brought to the city (Mogadishu) and trade has been picking up and the port and airport have re-opened.

Somalia's embattled interim government has been fending off a fierce advance by Islamist militiamen. The BBC's Adam Mynott meets both sides in the conflict and finds efforts to stop the fighting have had little effect.

In Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia which is controlled by the Islamic group, Muslim leaders said they had killed 70 government soldiers, the majority of them Ethiopians. One was an Ethiopian colonel, senior Islamic leader Sheik Mohamud Ibrahim Suley said. The Islamic group said they suffered seven deaths with 22 injured.

"The war is between Somalia and Ethiopia so the transitional government has to choose between Somalis and Ethiopia," Suley told reporters.

After returning from Somalia late Wednesday, EU envoy Louis Michel said skirmishes were likely to continue for now, but said both sides had broadly agreed to ease tensions, and he believed they were committed to negotiations.

Here's a quick factbox of the dynamics in play.

Comments

[splashtc]

Good place to try out any new nukes.

[Purple Avenger]

Yathink maybe this is why the French pulled their SpecOps guys out of Afghanistan and we've been training with the French in Djibouti? Maybe? Just maybe?

[Phoenix]

I'm leaning towards splashtc's option. I know it would put National Geographic magazine out of business, but maybe it's time for 'something to arise anew from nothing' in that area of the planet.